September Showers Bring October Concerns for Local Farmers

Harvest is getting a late start for local farmer Matt Ollendieck, and the wet fields are only part of his concern. He expects to dry much of his corn crop and says rain has left some nearly mature soybeans molding and rotting in their pods.

Ollendieck said his operation normally starts harvesting around mid-September. This year, it is just getting started in the first week of October.

“Field conditions are wet,” he said in a written statement provided to KRTR Local.

His account brings the harvest challenges around La Porte City and Dysart down to the farm level: getting equipment into the field, protecting grain quality and finding out what the weather will mean for the final crop and its costs.

Ollendieck said his operation has grown accustomed to harvesting dry corn without needing to run dryers. This fall, he expects to dry a substantial share, possibly all, of the corn crop. That would mean an additional harvest expense, although his statement did not put a dollar figure on it.

For soybeans, he described quality problems in plants that were almost mature when the rain began.

“Soybeans are molding and rotting in the pods,” Ollendieck said.

He believes the early soybeans have lost some of their yield potential, but said he was still waiting to see what the crop would look like in the grain tank. That is his assessment of those soybeans, not a measured loss for the surrounding area.

The description of September as one of Iowa’s wettest on record has support in the climate data. Iowa State University Extension’s Sept. 29 weather update listed the month so far as the seventh-wettest statewide in 154 years of records. That was a preliminary ranking, not the final monthly result.

Closer to home, the National Weather Service’s completed September report for Waterloo recorded 8.06 inches of precipitation, compared with a normal 3.14 inches. That station total provides nearby context, not a measurement for Ollendieck’s fields or every farm around La Porte City and Dysart.

Repeated rain has slowed harvest across Iowa. Iowa State University Extension specialists reported Oct. 2 that persistent rainfall across much of the Corn Belt was slowing field operations and the natural drying of corn. A break in the rain can help, but soils and grain still need time to dry.

USDA’s statewide report for the week ending Sept. 27 counted just 1.1 days suitable for fieldwork, compared with 6.2 a year earlier. Corn harvest was 5 percent complete and soybean harvest 3 percent complete, respectively 9 and 12 percentage points behind last year. Those figures describe Iowa as a whole and do not include the following week’s weather.

Wet weather does not mean every crop is ruined. That same report rated 75 percent of Iowa corn and 74 percent of soybeans good to excellent.

Iowa State plant pathologist Daren Mueller reported Sept. 29 that soybean seed diseases were appearing across Iowa. Warm, wet conditions can favor fungi, including Diaporthe seed decay, which can leave seeds cracked, shriveled or moldy. Those statewide observations do not diagnose the cause of the damage Ollendieck described.

Corn presents a balancing act. Waiting can reduce moisture and mechanical-drying costs, but weak stalks, lodging and ear deterioration can make delay costly. Extension specialists recommend checking fields and prioritizing compromised stalks or ears rather than relying on moisture readings alone.

Quality risks continue after harvest. Extension guidance warns that wet corn held in trucks or bins without adequate aeration uses up its safe storage time. Prompt drying, cooling and monitoring help limit spoilage. Visible mold alone does not establish a mycotoxin problem; testing is needed when contamination is suspected.

For farmers, extra drying can add fuel and electricity costs. Grain-quality deductions or actual yield losses can also reduce the harvest check. Iowa State’s marketing guidance recommends comparing drying costs with a buyer’s moisture discounts, charges and shrink factors. Shrink largely reflects water removed from grain; it is not automatically crop destroyed by rain.

Across the region, a shorter harvest window can concentrate demand for hauling, grain receiving and drying when fields become accessible. That is a potential pressure, not a confirmed local elevator bottleneck. No local or regional dollar-loss estimate has been established in this reporting.

Wet ground adds another tradeoff: rushing heavy equipment into fields can cause soil compaction that affects later crops. For Ollendieck, one of the next steps is getting into the soybeans and seeing what comes through the combine.